The dynamics of a small social group: sociometric analysis development of a temporary children’s team

Abstract

The article is devoted to a sociometric study of the stages of development of a temporary children’s collective. A comparison of their features in the modern children’s health camp and the Soviet pioneer camp is made. The analysis of stages of development among modern teenagers is based on empirical data collected by Marina-Victoria Grudkovskaya at the children’s health camp in the Leningrad region during the winter shift from 28 December 2018 to 10 January 2019. Data on the processes of collective development in the pioneer camp were obtained from the works of Soviet researchers. The purpose of the study: to determine the independent constants of the stages of social dynamics of temporary children’s groups and their variables determined by the historical period of development of society. In this study, a temporary children’s team is understood as a small social group of adolescent children formed by age and existing during the next shift of 12 to 14 days. The theoretical and methodological basis of the work was structuralism and the theory of sociometry by Jacob Moreno. The empirical object of research: adolescent groups of children, the age of teenagers 14-16 years. Method: the sociometric experiment. Data processing and visualization was performed in the SociometryPro environment. The scientific novelty consists in obtaining new relevant data on the social dynamics of temporary groups of modern teenagers. The development of a temporary children’s collective is also considered taking into account the socio-historical period that determines the socio-cultural and socio-economic conditions of personal development of adolescents. Conclusions are made about the features of functioning, the process of acceptance and evaluation of social roles and behavior. In particular, it is established that the temporary children’s collective goes through constant stages that are repeated in all generations of children, regardless of the historical period of development of society and changing socio-economic and socio-cultural conditions of growing up of new generations. According to the authors, in the future, in the process of studying the social dynamics of a temporary children’s collective, it is advisable to develop names and characteristics of stages of its development that are relevant for modern children, children’s subculture and the sociology of childhood.